When sheet pile walls are erected, a variety of sheet pile wall components—like sheet piles, carrier elements, and connecting profiles—are used. These various components are connected together. For this interconnection, the sheet piles and the connecting profiles and, if desired, also the carrier elements, are usually equipped with locks, which engage with each other.
If it is desired that three sheet pile wall sections are to be connected together, the above described connecting profile is used. To this end the connecting profile exhibits altogether three identical lock profiles, which protrude from the base body of the connecting profile in different predetermined coupling directions. In this case each lock profile exhibits a thumb strip and a curved finger strip, which is designed for hooking the sheet pile wall components. The lock of the sheet pile wall component, which is to be hooked, exhibits in an analogous manner a thumb strip and a curved finger strip.
In this context the coupling direction is defined as the direction, in which the hooked lock of the sheet pile and the lock profile of the connecting profile form, as viewed in the cross section, a so-called three point connection. Therefore, the thumb of the lock of the sheet pile wall component is accommodated in the lock chamber of the lock profile of the connecting profile, whereas the thumb of the connecting profile is accommodated in the lock chamber of the lock of the sheet pile wall component. If a tensile force acts on the sheet pile wall component in the coupling direction, the two thumbs brace each other, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, brace themselves against the finger strips of the respective other lock, so that, when seen in the cross section, the two locks rest against each other or are mutually braced at three points.
Profiles are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,508 and DE 3907348 A1, but they are no longer used or have never been used.
The connecting profile disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,508 had the problem that the connecting profile did not allow for any relative movements between the lock profiles and the locks of the sheet pile wall components, with the result that, when the sheet pile wall components were rammed into the ground, the engaging locks were heated due to the frictional forces, acting between the locks, to such an extent that they were welded together; and in the worst case the locks even broke away.
In contrast, the connecting profile disclosed in the DE 39 07 348 A1 was never used because the connecting profile cannot be manufactured in the described design with a channel extending in the longitudinal direction in the base body.
An object of the present invention is to provide a connecting profile for interconnecting three sheet pile wall components and/or an arrangement of three sheet pile wall components, which are to be connected together by means of such a connecting profile and with which it is possible, in particular, to erect sheet pile walls without any problems.